In far southcentral Oregon, away from opulent coastal rains and lush low valleys, lies the community of Lakeview. At an altitude of 4,800 feet, the community is a desert town that could more aptly be named "Mountainview" than Lakeview. Here, cattle ranching is an important business.

In the community is the Lakeview Ward, distinctive because it is among the most distant in the Portland Oregon Temple district, 350 miles from the temple. Each year, however, the youth travel by bus to the temple.This year, virtually every active young man and woman made the trip in August - about 43 people plus adult leaders and parents. The date was announced in January and ward members scheduled their affairs around the trip. A sacrament meeting and various lessons were devoted to the importance of temple work. Some of the young people, such as Emma Kings, a Laurel, took family names for whom to be baptized.

In mid-August, the packed bus began its seven-hour trip, crossing to the green mountains with dense pine forests. At Willamette Pass near Bend, Ore., the bus stopped and the youth enjoyed a picnic lunch at Salt Creek Falls. Then the journey resumed and was completed at a motel near the temple. This year, the youth skipped their traditional dip in the motel pool in favor of visiting a Mia Maid from the ward, Julie McFarland, seriously ill in a Portland hospital.

Early the next morning the youth, dressed in white, were thrilled at the majesty of the baptismal font and the significance of their work.

"I was doing family work, so they let me do mine first," said Emma. She was baptized for several great-aunts, and then for her mother's sister. "It really felt neat," she said. "I really feel like I know her a little better now."

But just after Emma was baptized, the lights of the temple winked off and plunged the temple into darkness. Later it was learned that a construction accident cut power lines in the area. Soon dim auxiliary lights from the temple's generator came on, and with flashlights, the work proceeded.

Troy Stoddard, a priest and one of the last to be baptized, said that when the lights went out, "It kind of surprised me, but when the generator kicked in, we kept going." He said the subdued lighting seemed to create a yet more reverent atmosphere among the youth. The lights came back on later.

"I thought of how the world has its problems, but they can't affect the work of the temple," said Troy.